Reading the Chunksters discussion

Since it has been so long since we had a proper nominations round, this one is open to all chunksters including rereads, and I am tempted to let the nominations run until the October (not least so I can get my head around how the process should work). As before you can nominate and second, and if there are a large number of nominations the ones with most seconds will go to the poll. I am also open to suggestions about how long the poll should run for and when we should aim to start the discussion.

Wonderful news!
I would love to nominate The Hunchback of Notre-Dame 510 pages by Victor Hugo.

By the way - what's the minimum pages? Is this one long enough?

Yes, 500 pages is the minimum.

Hugh wrote: "Yes, 500 pages is the minimum."

Perfect! =)

I second The Hunchback of Notredame by Hugo. And I nominate Our Mutual Friend by Dickens.

I suggest for beginning we can give 1 week for nominations and 1 for voting. This will give time to procure the copy of winner book.

Nidhi wrote: "I second The Hunchback of Notredame by Hugo. And I nominate Our Mutual Friend by Dickens.

I suggest for beginning we can give 1 week for nominations and 1 for voting. This will give time to procu..."

Thankyou Nidhi =)

Thanks Nidhi. I think we need more than one week for nominations at least this time, because the group has been inactive for so long and we need to give people time to find us again.

Ten ten days will be fine. Starting from day one, results on 22 or 23, leaves one week for getting book or chatting about author (pre- read).

And I would suggest alternate nominations for classics and contemporary.

Nidhi wrote: "Ten ten days will be fine. Starting from day one, results on 22 or 23, leaves one week for getting book or chatting about author (pre- read).

And I would suggest alternate nominations for classics..."

I like your enthusiasm, but given the need to rebuild interest in the group, I think rushing the nomination process may be counterproductive. I left the start date for the discussion open because that is also a question we need to think about. We can move faster if we get a lot of interest.

Yes you are right, we should start slow. Selected book can be read in November. Whole October we can observe how many members are interested in long reads. Afterwards maybe from next year you can frame a regular nomination structure.

I’m a huge fan of the classics; however, we tend to see the same authors sprinkled over a number of book groups. Dickens, Dumas, Hugo, Austen…they seem to pop up frequently. I’m indifferent to Dumas and Hugo. I’ve read them of course, but I don’t find much to talk about, so I wouldn’t revisit them and would bow out of the discussion, if chosen, which is fine. :) Dickens is incredible, one of my favorites, but there are a number of groups devoted to his works and it’s ground well covered.

I do tend more toward classics, but I have a couple of contemporary works I’d like to throw out there because I haven’t read them yet (they are on my bookshelves). They are: “The Book of Form and Emptiness” by Ozeki and “The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois” by Jeffers. Both sound really interesting.

Not sure if anyone else would be?

I’d like to throw out a few nominations - different sorts of books, since I don’t know yet the tastes of folks here:

-Miss Macintosh, My Darling, by Marguerite Young
-JR, by William Gaddis
-Mosquito, by Gayl Jones
-Carpentaria, by Alexis Wright

Paula wrote: "I’m a huge fan of the classics; however, we tend to see the same authors sprinkled over a number of book groups. Dickens, Dumas, Hugo, Austen…they seem to pop up frequently."

I agree with Paula on many of the classics, at least those that are well known. They do pop up in many groups over and over again. I love them, but I am inclined to lean towards something contemporary for this group.

Paula wrote: "“The Book of Form and Emptiness” by Ozeki"

I second this nomination. I haven't read this author before, but the premise sounds interesting and I love diving into books completely different and unknown to me. Looks like this one was just recently published last month.

Manuel wrote: "-JR, by William Gaddis"

This is on my "someday" list, but after having read The Recognitions, I know that I really have to be in the mood to tackle this one as I know it will likely be slow-going and will take patience to read through.

Are we limited to one nomination and one second?

If my first nomination seems to classic and old for the moment I have some other suggestions but I'm not sure how many books I can nominate. I will change The Hunchback of Notre Dame to a contemporary chunkster: Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan

I would prefer to stick to one nomination per person, but would be happy to accept multiple seconds. Still struggling a little to understand what rules we are working to.

If we are aiming for November, then I will nominate 11/22/63 by Stephen King.

I'll nominate Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. Sounds interesting.

I'll second Our Mutual Friend. I enjoy Dickens.

If I were to nominate a second book, it would be Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann. I've heard some good things about it, and the blurb sounds interesting. Haven't read the author, but hoping I'll be pleasantly surprised.

I'll second Ducks, Newburyport

I second The Book of Form and Emptiness and Pachinko

Our mutual friend or 1q84

Manuel wrote: "I’d like to throw out a few nominations - different sorts of books, since I don’t know yet the tastes of folks here:

-Miss Macintosh, My Darling, by Marguerite Young
-JR, by William Gaddis
-Mosqui..."

Wow Manuel, I've looked up your 4 suggestions, and from the reviews they are serious reads requiring quite a bit of focus. I'm rebooting my lazy brain as its been fed mainly escapist mystery for the last couple of years, my reason for joining this group.
I did start the Carpentaria some years back but I think I stopped somewhere along the way. Being Australian it has a lot of content I'd care to meet up with again.

Paula wrote: "“The Book of Form and Emptiness” by Ozeki and “The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois” by Jeffers. Both sound really interesting.

Not sure if anyone else would be?*
"

Yes they both sound like great reads.
I would lean towards seconding The Book of Form and Emptiness just now as in the mood for its quirkiness, I guess.

OK, we have a few candidates there, but there is room for more. Shall we set a deadline of 20 October for nominations, then we can move to a poll.

Nike wrote: "I have some other suggestions but I'm not sure how many books I can nominate. I will change The Hunchback of Notre Dame to a contemporary chunkster: Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan

reply | flag *
"
Sounds like a great read, I would be happy to second this one.

Linda wrote: "Manuel wrote: "-JR, by William Gaddis"

This is on my "someday" list, but after having read The Recognitions, I know that I really have to be in the mood to tackle this one as I know ..."

That's my understanding as well. It's almost all dialogue, intentionally contains a lot of mutual misunderstanding on a moment to moment basis in the conversations, and leaves in a lot of the ways people speak ungrammatically and in confused fragments in colloquial language. I've only read a few excerpts online myself...

Lisa wrote: "Manuel wrote: "I’d like to throw out a few nominations - different sorts of books, since I don’t know yet the tastes of folks here:

-Miss Macintosh, My Darling, by Marguerite Young
-JR, by William..."

Is that a second for Carpentaria?

I decided recently that I want to tackle some big experimental books, which I've always loved. However, I want to branch out from the stuff I've focused on in the past, and read more doorstops by and about women, people of color, LGBTQ folks, and so on - out from the usual modernist and postmodernist suspects, most of whom are just white guys.

Yes okay I will confirm a second for Carpentaria. I probably need a nudge to give the book another try. I think at first reading I was unprepared for the style and had picked the book up from somewhere with little background idea .... but it is my understanding that it is an important book, with stories that should be told and more wildly shared. Lets see what happens.

Lisa wrote: "Nike wrote: "I have some other suggestions but I'm not sure how many books I can nominate. I will change The Hunchback of Notre Dame to a contemporary chunkster: Life and Death are Wearing Me Out b..."

Thankyou, Lisa =)!

OK, today is the last chance to nominate, and I will create a poll of those books that have at least one second tomorrow.

Thanks for reviving the group, Hugh.

I'll second The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

The poll is now up here and will run until the end of October. Shall we aim to start the discussion at the start of December?

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

Thank you, Hugh! I think a December start sounds good.

I vote for Book of Form and Emptinesses

Alexa, if you want that vote to count, follow the link to the poll.

Still a week to go before the poll closes, and Ozeki has a healthy lead - if it wins I am unlikely to read it, as the hardback would break my books budget - hadn't realised it was so new...

I was so tempted to vote for Ducks; however, I was concerned that people would fall by the wayside. It’s not an easy read. And I believe Amanda and Linda have already read it and might not want to reread.

Thank you for organising Hugh,
I read most of mine as audiobooks nowadays although it does mean I go without that true Chunkster experience of having a large hardback fall on my face due to nodding off.
I experienced this several times while reading through Colleen McCullough's Masters of Roman series ... often during lengthy bloody battles that she somehow mostly managed to make interesting.
I was tempted to nominate it as there's a huge amount of great research, history and interesting characters right from the first book.

I voted for Book of Form and Happiness but don't want to exclude anyone, least of all Hugh who is organizing us! What about the affordability of the others? I'll change my vote accordingly.

To follow-up, I am drawn to Carpentaria but it, too, is very expensive. Perhaps the classics are the way to go.

I have no problem with a new book winning, just wanted to make my own position clear.

I loved reading Ducks, once I got into the rhythm of the writing. I feel like it would be a difficult book to discuss with the way this group is setup, though. Once you start reading, you just want to keep going at a quick pace, and there are no chapters for easy discussion. I see that there is an audiobook of it now, which would be interesting to check out at some point.

Hm, it still hasn't come to my country yet so I can't join you for this read.

Speaking for myself, it looks like Duck isn't a good choice any more, and The Book of Form and Emptiness is pricey. My library has it, and I'm 11th on the list, but once checked out I will only have 3 weeks to read it, and then I will be on the waiting list again. I'm thinking of switching my vote to Our Mutual Friend.

I loved Ducks, Newburyport, but I agree that it might be challenging to make it work as a group read

I definitely think Ducks would be a difficult group read. Linda and I buddy read it and it was hard just with 2 of us because there are no chapters I don’t even think there were paragraphs. It’s also not one to read x pages per week as Linda said once you get in the flow you need to keep going.

I had already bought The Book of Form and Emptiness and was planning to read it in Jan. but if a classic is better for everyone else I will also participate in that.

I switched my vote to Our Mutual Friend.

well I'm happy to change to Dickens too ...I just realised I've not read any Dickens since childhood ... so well overdue for a revisit.

@Mandel
I'm happy to try a buddy read on Carpentaria if you like.
I've access to an audio version via Bolinda books library link.